Converted from Oil to Gas and now have water leaking issues

KeefWeef

Hello all,

I'm new to dealing with gas heat as my house just converted from Oil to gas heat. My old oil furnace was over 100 years old but kicked out really good heat. I upgraded from oil because of the age of my old furnace and my house was already piped for gas due to my water boiler and dryer. I've noticed that ever since I converted to gas, the radiator steam pipes in the basement have been springing leaks either at the joints or in the pipe themselves. I repaired a couple of pin hole leaks in some of the pipes with epoxy and they've held up so far.

However, this morning I came downstairs to the basement after hearing my floor water alarm go off and found that there was a big puddle on the floor from yet ANOTHER water leak at one of the pipe joints. After doing some research I found that gas heat gives off higher pressure. Can this be the cause of the leaks? Would turning the pressure down fix the issue? I'd rather not incur the expense of having to replace all of my current pipes. Thoughts?

KarlW

I suspect the change in water with the new boiler and whatever work was done corroded what was left of your pipes.

My house is over 100 years old and this happened to me two years ago - once one joint failed, they all cascaded and failed. In the end, I had to replace my entire dry return run.

For what it's worth, I work in facilities and purchase this kind of stuff on a commercial scale, but the residential work at my house was less expensive than I had thought.

Jamie Hall

The very first question is the obvious one: what cutoff pressure is the new system set at? Gas does not inherently create higher pressure than oil — a flame is a flame, and the fuel has nothing to do with pressure. How much flame there is, and for how long — and thus how high the pressure is allowed to go — is relevant.

So step 1 — what is the pressure control set at.

Now the bad news. If the pressure is set too high and you seeing leaks, it may be that the damage is done. It is possible that the new water involved made a difference, but that would only be seen in the wet returns, if anywhere.

dopey27177

As you stated the system is very old.

The system steam pressure should not exceed 1 1/2 psi with a 1/2 psi pressure.

The damage has been done time to replace all the leaking pipe hopefully the riser pipe and runouts to the radiators have not been affected.

Jake

KeefWeef

Hey KarlW, can you give me a ballpark estimate of what I'm looking at? My pipe in the basement aren't that extensive.

KarlW

I'll PM you to avoid violating the rules.